Australia's Vanished Beasts
Giant Goanna
Megalania prisca
You would not want to have run into a hungry giant goanna. For one
thing, its kind was huge: experts have estimated that the largest
M. prisca for which there is some fossil evidence was 23 feet
long and weighed about 1,350 pounds. That's about eight times the
mass of the living Komodo dragon, which the giant goanna may have
resembled in basic ecology and behavior. Like the Komodo, it may
have lurked in undergrowth before ambushing prey—such as the
diprotodontid downed at a waterhole in this illustration—then
ripped apart its victim with its large, serrated teeth. (Its genus
name means "great ripper.")